#40. Set During A Holiday You Don’t Celebrate – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Paperback)

I really enjoyed David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten. I was confused by his third novel, Cloud Atlas (although after reading the book and then watching the film, everything suddenly slipped into place in my addled brain.) 

When reading Slade House, I realised this was a writer who has the ability to write about anything; it was probably one of the most frightening/disturbing novels I’d read.

So when I came across The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in a charity shop for 50p, it was a bargain I couldn’t resist; however it never quite reached the top of my TBR pile. Thanks to this challenge, it's finally found a reason to become a priority read. 

“In your hands is a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the west. Here, in the dying days of the 18^th century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart.

 

Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with schemeing traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control – of riches and minds, and over death itself.”

Mainly set in 1799 & 1800, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a character-driven, historical tale, that unfolds on the isolated Dutch trading post of Dejima in Japan. This small, man-made island in Nagasaki Bay, served as a window between the East and West amidst Japan’s strict isolation policy whereby Japan only traded with the Dutch. The Japanese were forbidden to mix with the Dutch and any attempts to break the rules resulted in dire consequences.

In this fictious tale, David Mitchell explores culture clashes, love, morality and ambition through the eyes of Jacob de Zoet, a young Dutch clerk who has been sent to Dejima to uncover corruption in the trading logs of the East India Company.
Jacob’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Orito Aibagawa and becomes infatuated with her. As Jacob struggles to come to terms with the complex nature of Japanese society, the novel reveals far bigger tensions between Eastern and Western values.

The book is beautifully poetic, however, I did find it a taxing read. There was an eloquence in the writing, and the descriptive nature of the book created vivid images of a time and place in history, but it made trying to keep up with conversations extraordinarily difficult. This book is filled with numerous characters. All have a role to play, but there are too many of them. Fortunately there is a list of characters to be found at the end of the book, so you can remind yourself of the connections as you read.

#17. Nominated For The Booker Prize – Possession by A S Byatt (Audible)

I purchased this Audible book in February 2021. I found it tedious to listen to, despite the wonderful narration of actor Samuel West, and I stopped listening after the first few chapters thinking I’d try again “when I was in the mood.” At nearly 22 hours long, I couldn’t find the enthusiasm to listen to it.  I noticed that this title crept slowly to the bottom of my list as I continued to buy and listen to other titles which I found infinitely more engaging within the first few minutes of listening to them. 

When I read the blurb, I thought I had been buying an edgy detective novel, but this is a detective work more akin to family history research than a “who dunnit” murder mystery!  As I was looking for titles that had been nominated for the Booker Prize, I remembered that I still had this book to listen to and not only had it been nominated, but it had also won the prize, so it must have something going for it. 

Indeed, the book is cleverly constructed, and I found Sam West read it beautifully, however, it is a book full of beautiful prose and poetry and it is challenging to listen to and remember what’s going on.  If I need to sit and concentrate on a book, then my first choice is a paperback and this is a book you need to concentrate on, and perhaps flick the pages back and forth to remind you of events or look at things again in detail. You can't do this with an audio book and so my experience of the book fell a little short, but I still enjoyed it! 

“Winner of England's Booker Prize 1990.

 Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets.

 Following a trail of  letters, journals and poems, they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.”

Roland Michell is a literary researcher who has recently completed his PhD studying the eminent (fictitious) Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. He is frustrated that he cannot find himself a permanent job, however, whilst in a London library, he discovers, hidden in the back of a book that once belonged to Ash, two draft handwritten letters to an unknown woman. Excited by this discovery, he secretes these letters with his personal belongings before returning the book to the librarian. Michell suspects that Ash must have been having an affair and begins to delve deeper to unearth who the letters were meant for. His knowledge of Ash leads him to theorise that the letters were intended for a contemporary of Ash, a minor poet named Christabel LaMotte.

Dr Maud Bailey is both a distant relative and scholar of Christabel LaMotte and Michell arranges to meet her in Lincoln to discuss his hypothesis.  Maud shows him some additional documents which show a likely correspondence took place between the two poets around 1858/59. It would be a significant find for the academics if Ash and LaMotte had been having an affair, as it had been widely understood that Ash was happily married, and LaMotte was probably a lesbian. Michell admits to Maud about the letters he has stolen, whilst she confirms she is intrigued and wants to find out more about the affair. Any academic who managed to discover the truth about the relationship would bolster their career, so Maud and Roland try to keep their research secret; but hot on their heels are another group of scholars including James Blackadder, and American scholars Mortimer Cropper and Leonora Stern, thus much excitement and underhand activities follow in the pursuit of the truth.

The Venetian Contract by Marina Fiorato (Paperback)

I saw "The Venetian Contract" in a second hand bookshop and only bought it because it was about Venice, my second favourite city in the world!

My first trip to Venice was in 2007, it was a couple of days after my dad had died, and my brothers refused to allow me to sit and wallow in self-pity. I went in February, the time of the Carnevale and I was swept up in a world of mystery, costume and masked beauty. Obviously my mind kept wandering elsewhere, so a year later I went back, once again to take in the sights of the Carnevale, a must see wonder for anyone who loves costume and history. I have subsequently returned to Venice, not at Carnevale time, and the place still holds a special magical place in my heart.

This book is set in 1576 and tells the story of a Turkish stowaway who arrives in Venice. With her arrival, the Turkish ship also sets down an unpleasant gift to the city, the bubonic plague. In order to treat the city, the Doge of Venice commissions the architect Andrea Palladio to build a great church so that God will save the city. (Palladio gave his name to the ubiquitous architectural style in the world, Palladianism).

Prologue. "Sebastiano Venier, Doge of Venice." 

From those first five words I knew that he was the Doge during the time of the Battle of Lepanto (as shown in this painting by Tintoretto.)

How did I know that? Well because my slight obsession with the work of Tom Burke (favourite actor) meant I had read up on the play "Scenes From an Execution" by Howard Barker which Tom Burke starred in. I remember years ago playing the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon", these days the game seems to be "Six Degrees of Tom Burke!"


Six plague doctors from the six sestieri's (areas of Venice) arrive at the Doge's palace with remarkable medical advice such as putting a live pigeon in a patients groin. The Doge found the physicians to be charlatans, buffoons, each one thinking that they were more important than the next one! "These doctors could not help Venice. They would dispense their potions and remedies , make gold along the way, and some citizens would live and some would die." 

The Venetians had beaten the Ottoman's at the Battle of Lepanto, and this book is set a few years later when the Ottomans wish to wreak revenge on Venice. This is a beautifully written book which transports you back to the Calles of Venice. You can sense the confusion of the Turkish heroine as she tries to make her way around the city, getting lost down dead end passageways and walking around in circles! It also gives you a taste of the historical Venice, at Carnevale people walk around wearing the Dottore's Mask (doctor's mask shaped like that of a birdman) the beak of which was stuffed with herbs to ward away the miasma of the plague, but more likely the smell of putrefaction. There are many islands surrounding Venice, some well known, Murano the glass island and Burano the lace-making island, but this book also tells us of the lesser known island of Lazzaretto Novo, or the quarantine island. In the 1570's, known as the Plague years, the Venetians were terrified of the disease being brought to their shores. Crews from boats would disembark at the island, walk through a lime pit, and the items on board would be removed and smoked to kill any chance of the Plague. The crew would live in almshouse for forty days (hence the origin of the word quarantine) and once they were declared healthy, they and their goods were allowed to continue into the city of Venice.

As Plague takes hold of the city, the Doge commissions the architect Palladio to build a church on the island of Guidecca. One that would be so magnificent God would save Venice! In order to keep Palladio alive, the Doge also commissions the greatest doctor in Venice to keep Palladio alive. Whilst he has a greater knowledge of medicine than his fellow doctors, he finds that the Turkish stowaway who crosses his path can teach him that the medicines of east and west work better when both sets of knowledge are combined!

Whilst this is a piece of fiction, it does take in historical elements, and it has made me want to return to Venice so that I can visit Palladio's church on Guidecca, and perhaps to swish around St Marks Square at Carnevale in a costumed dress and mask!



(Whilst reading the historical notes and acknowledgements at the end of the book I couldn't help but chuckle, the lady responsible for the historical accuracy of the costumes was Hayley Nebauer, the same lady responsible for designing the costumes in the third series of The Musketeers. So the book begins and ends with a link to Tom Burke, you just couldn't write it...although I think I just did!)

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Historical Romance, Venice

Release Date: 16^th August 201

Publisher: John Murray

Pages: 407

 

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